60 children among Afghan Dead UN finds.

This is from the NY Times.
NATO and the U.S. insist they always show the utmost concern for civilian casualties. Yet they do not even count them. In this case as in others they insist on giving a quite different account of what happens inevitably downplaying any civilian deaths if they even admit any. Karzai has for his part been complaining about this for ages without any results. The U.S. is getting a bit peeved at his complaints however and for this and other reasons will try to arrange his replacement by a more amenable president such as Zalmay Khalilzad who has served the Bush administration well. Of course this arrangement will be democratic!
This example shows what probably happens reasonably often. Money is paid for intelligence and any Afghan who has a beef against another tribe can make some money and get even by fingering them as Taliban and indicating where they are.

August 27, 2008
60 Children Among Afghan Dead, U.N. Finds
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan — A United Nations human rights team has found “convincing evidence” that some 90 civilians — among them 60 children — were killed in air strikes on a village in western Afghanistan on Thursday night, a statement issued by the United Nations mission in Kabul said, making it almost certainly the deadliest case of civilian casualties caused by any United States military operation in Afghanistan since 2001.
The United Nations the team visited the scene and interviewed survivors and local officials and elders, getting a name, age and gender of each person reported killed. The team reported that 15 people had been injured in the air strikes, which occurred in the middle of the night.
The numbers closely match those given by a government commission sent from Kabul to investigate the bombing, which put the total dead at up to 95.
Mohammad Iqbal Safi, the head of the parliamentary defense committee and a member of the government commission, said the 60 children were between three months old and 16 years old, all killed as they slept. “It was a heart breaking scene,” he said.
The death toll may even rise higher since heavy lifting gear is needed to uncover all the remains, said one Western official who had seen the United Nations report.
“This is a matter of grave concern to the United Nations,” Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan said in a statement. “It is vital that the International and Afghan military forces thoroughly review the conduct of this operation in order to prevent a repeat of this tragic incident,” he said.
The United Nations report adds pressure to the United States military, which has to date said only that 25 militants and five civilians were killed in the air strikes, which were aimed at a Taliban named Mullah Saddiq. The military announced it was conducting an investigation after the high civilian death toll was reported.
The bombing occurred around midnight, the United Nations statement said. “Foreign and Afghan military personnel entered the village of Nawabad in the Azizabad area of Shindand district,” it said. “Military operations lasted several hours during which air strikes were called in.” “The destruction from aerial bombardment was clearly evident, with some 7-8 houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others,” it said.
The parliamentarian, Mr. Safi, said the villagers were preparing for a ceremony the next morning in memory of a man who had died some time before. Extended families from two tribes were visiting the village and there were lights of fires as the adults were cooking food for the ceremony, he said.
How the military came to call in air strikes on a civilian gathering still remains unclear. Two parliamentarians, Mr. Safi and Maulavi Gul Ahmad, who is from the area, said the villagers blamed tribal enemies for giving the military false intelligence.
“According to the villagers their enemies give false report to Americans that foreign fighters were gathering in the village,” Mr. Safi said.
Mr. Ahmad directly blamed the United States Special Forces, who are training the Afghan National Army and were present in the joint operation. “I can’t blame the Afghan National Army for the incident as they had no authority for leading the operation,” Mr. Ahmad said.
The government commission met with the commander of the United States forces in Herat province but he declined to answer their questions, saying the United States military was conducting its own investigation, government officials said.
Russia, at odds with the United States and much of the West over its recognition of two breakaway regions in the Central Asian country of Georgia, said it would raise the issue on Tuesday afternoon at the Security Council.
Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting.

US steps up war-zone airstrikes

This is from USA today. This policy is clearly designed to minimise US casualties but is bound to increase Iraqi civilian casualties. Both Maliki and Karzai complain about the policy to absolutely no avail. In Afghanistan the policy is promoted by Bomber McNeil.


U.S. military steps up war-zone airstrikes

By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
The U.S. military has increased airstrikes in Iraq four-fold this year, reflecting a steep escalation in combat operations aimed at al-Qaeda and other militants.
Coalition forces launched 1,140 airstrikes in the first nine months of this year compared with 229 in all of last year, according to military statistics.

Airstrikes are up in Afghanistan, too. Coalition planes have made 2,764 bombing runs this year, up from 1,770 last year. The figures don't include strikes by helicopter gunships.

The increasing use of air power also stems from improved accuracy and smaller munitions that allow commanders to launch airstrikes against insurgents who travel in small groups and sometimes hide among civilians.

In Iraq, the temporary increase of 30,000 U.S. troops ordered by President Bush in January has led to the increase in bombing missions. The U.S. command has moved forces off large bases and into neighborhoods and has launched several large offensives aimed at al-Qaeda.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | Baghdad | Afghanistan | Air Force
"You end up having that many more opportunities for close air support," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Stephen Mueller, director of the Combined Air Operations Center.

More precise targeting and smaller bombs have made it easier for the Air Force to support ground troops in counterinsurgencies, such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We're hitting within 15 feet of where we're aiming," Mueller said. A typical 500-pound bomb is 50% explosives, but newer versions carry about 100 pounds of explosives.

Some bombs are "designed to take one building and not the whole block," Mueller said.

Fighting in Baghdad has also pushed insurgents into the surrounding countryside, making it easier to spot and bomb them, he said.

Afghanistan's mountainous terrain lends itself to airstrikes, since attack planes can reach remote regions before troops can, and there are fewer ground forces in the country.

"We are using air power in lieu of putting extensive forces on the ground," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Allen Peck, commander of the Air Force Doctrine Development and Education Center.

However, increased use of air power raises the chances of killing innocent civilians, said Mark Clodfelter, a professor at the National War College. Winning over the population is key to defeating insurgents.

"You don't want bombing to be a recruiting method for the insurgents," Clodfelter said.

Airstrikes in Afghanistan this year allegedly killed dozens of civilians, angering the population and drawing criticism from Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

More civilian casualties from US air strikes in Afghanistan: Bush satisfied!

We will hear much more about precision bombings from now on. The numbers of civilian casualties may not change but the rhetoric will. Of course Bush supports bomber McNeil. It is virtually inevitable that if airstrikes are called when the Taliban take refuge in civilian structures such as homes etc. that there will be more civilian casualties. What the US and allies care about is their casualties. Afghan casualties are an affair of public relations. Actually this is probably true of all casualties! It is just that negative homeland opinion is regarded as more of a problem than Afghan opinion. This is short sighted because negative Afghan opinion helps the Taleban more than the military successes help the occupiers--sorry I meant ISAF, International Security Assistance Forces.

Afghans 'wounded in air strike'

The injured said they were at a market when the aircraft struck
About 50 Afghan civilians have been wounded in an air strike by US-led forces on a group of Taleban leaders holding a meeting in Helmand province.
Witnesses have told the BBC that a large number of civilians were killed.

The attack on Thursday night reportedly targeted Dadullah Mansour, the group's military commander in the south, and Abdul Rahim, its commander in Helmand.

The Afghan defence ministry said its intelligence reports indicated three militants, including Rahim, had died.

Officials are trying to confirm if Dadullah Mansour, the brother of the late Taleban military commander, Mullah Dadullah, was among those killed.

The Taleban leaders had gathered to watch the public execution of two people on charges of co-operating with the government, ministry spokesman Gen Zahir Azimi said.

'Precision airstrike'

The US-led military coalition could not confirm Gen Azimi's account, but confirmed it had conducted an airstrike against "two notorious Taleban commanders" in a remote area of Baghran district in northern Helmand.

"During a sizable meeting of senior Taliban commanders, coalition forces employed precision-guided munitions on their location after ensuring there were no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area," the coalition statement said.



The coalition gave no word of casualties, but a BBC reporter in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, says about 50 people were admitted to hospital there with injuries.

The injured said they had been at a market when the bombardment happened and that there had been a large number of civilian deaths.

Helmand's police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, confirmed that wounded civilians had been admitted to hospital.

"I can confirm there were heavy bombardments," he told the Reuters news agency.

"We have heard of heavy casualties too and have sent a team to investigate this."

The news of civilian casualties comes only days after the secretary-general of Nato said it was considering the use of smaller bombs in Afghanistan to try to curb the rising number of civilians killed during operations against the Taleban.

Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, recently warned Western troops against treating Afghan lives cheaply.


Bush hower is satisfied with attempts to limit civilian casualties.

Bush satisfied with efforts to spare Afghan civilians: spokesman Fri Aug 3, 3:44 PM ET



WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush is "absolutely satisfied" that the US military does everything it can to spare civilians when conducting airstrikes in Afghanistan, the White House said Friday.



"He's absolutely satisfied that our military does everything in its power to avoid innocent loss of life," spokesman Scott Stanzel said two days before Bush was due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the Camp David retreat.

More than 50,000 US and NATO-led troops fighting the resurgent Taliban Islamist militia are under pressure from rights groups and the government to avoid civilian deaths during their operations.

"That's an issue that I think highlights the great difference between the United States and its allies in prosecuting the war on terror and the people that were going against, which is people who specifically target innocent civilians, women and children, for kidnapping, killing," said Stanzel.

"We mourn every loss of innocent life, and we do more than has ever been done before to avoid that unfortunate situation," said the spokesman.